


Manhunt

by Bouzingo



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Bucky loves the environment, Deaf Character, Gen, Government Conspiracy, Serial Killers, clint and bucky in the forest, friendship building, gamma radiation, pop culture references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-21
Updated: 2014-05-05
Packaged: 2018-01-20 07:42:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1502282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bouzingo/pseuds/Bouzingo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky and Clint go into the mountains to root out a gamma-powered serial killer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Bucky isn’t allowed to do anything with the Avengers until they come to a majority vote on him becoming a part of the team, and even then, it’s agreed that he can’t participate in anything like dismantling an alien invasion.

He’s come a long way; he doesn’t wake up the Winter Soldier, eyes empty except for one objective, one mission. Now he’s more likely to catch up on the innovations of the twentieth century that he missed, everything from the new Disney films to the Starktech that’s made his arm better and lighter. Bucky’s more verbal too, though he clearly prefers to listen to people. Still, speaking with him is a less unsettling experience than it was before. Nobody liked the sensation of talking into a vacuum.

Clint Barton likes Bucky. Seventy years of brainwashing and now, under his own free will, he prefers to garden. There’s something endearing about that.

“You know, I’ve spent more time in the garden in the last two weeks than ever before because Stark put wifi in your arm,” he says, half-joking. They’re on top of Avengers tower, which is covered in primarily yellow and purple flowers.

“And here I thought you came here to enjoy the gifts of nature,” Bucky mutters. He has the most undercover sense of humour since Natasha learned about practical jokes.

“Why all the yellow and purple?” Clint asks, gesturing at the plot.

“Read an article on the internet,” Bucky says, and straightens from where he’s been crouched over a patch of lavender. “Bees like those colours. Wanted to help the bees.”

“Of course you did,” Clint says.

“Apparently they’re disappearing,” Bucky continues, with a slight frown, “Along with the ice caps and some species of big cat.” 

“Well maybe if the Avengers don’t let you in on their shindigs, you can make it your life’s work to save the environment,” Clint suggests. Bucky grunts noncommittally.

“Yo Katniss,” Tony says from the communications screen in the middle of the garden. “Hate to interrupt, but we have a situation. You come too, Ninotchka.”

Clint gets up, shoulders his quiver. He can see Bucky change too, with the prospect of a mission.

“What’s a Katniss?” Bucky asks Clint while they go down to the debriefing room.

“You don’t know the Hunger Games?” Clint says, but stops short of explaining the premise when he thinks of Natasha’s accounts of the Red Room. “Not really up your alley, I don’t think. Who’s Ninotchka?”

Bucky spears him with an incredulous glance.

“It’s a _classic_ …” he says, trailing off as they finally reach the debriefing room. The rest of the Avengers are there, minus Thor who was called to Asgard on important princely business. There are also a few thoroughly ashen police officers.

“Que pasa?” Clint asks, sidling into his chair. Bucky sort of just stands awkwardly at the door. He doesn’t have a chair, and Thor’s is beside Steve.

“We were just about to get there,” Tony says. “Is tall Russian and moody going to stand there, or are we going to get started?”

“He’s not Russian,” Steve says, and Natasha is about to say the same thing, but Bucky sits down.

“Um,” says the police officer. “As I was saying before, Charles Madden Brown aka the Catskill Skinner escaped from his medium-security cell last night. Given his MO, we sent a taskforce into the mountains to collect him before he could get established. We had assumed that he had escaped on his own, or with the intervention of his fans, of which there are many.”

He coughs.

“We were not prepared for him. Following an armed stand-off at the base of the ___ mountain, it became apparent that Brown possesses metahuman qualities. Three personnel were lost trying to bring him in, and he is still at large. I hesitate to send more officers after him, and I was hoping that maybe people of your specialties could assist. There is a precedent for such a thing in these circumstances.”

The officer sighs, visibly deflated.

“I have given a full report and Brown’s file. I’ve uploaded all the details onto Mr. Stark’s network here. Now I have to go tell the spouses of the deceased about their loss.”

He picks up his hat and leaves. Tony lets out an audible breath.

“Heavy,” he says. “I’ve taken a look at the Catskill Skinner’s file. Nothing that wasn’t in the news when he was originally arrested. His newfangled metahuman capabilities are a bit of a surprise, of course. Looks like gamma radiation, from what I can see of the energy signatures coming out of the Catskills. When he’s apprehended, Doctor Banner has expressed an interest in studying what’s going on there.”

“So how are we going to do this?” Steve says. He looks a bit grey. Recalling the Catskill Skinner’s crimes from years ago, Clint can understand why.

“It’s not a full-team kind of mission. Brown’s a survivalist,” Tony says with a frown. “My first thought was that Barnes might take this one on.”

“Alone?” Bucky says, his expression inscrutable.

“Of course not,” Tony says. “There’s a superpowered serial killer running around in the mountains. You choose a partner.”

“I want Barton,” Bucky says without a second thought. “When do we go?”

And so Clint finds himself packing light, for maybe two days in the mountains. It’s a little surprising, honestly; he got the sense that Bucky tolerated him, but never that he would choose him over his best buddy or Natasha.

Speaking of, she’s standing in the doorway of his room.

“Be careful with Barnes,” she signs. “He’s only been deprogrammed recently.”

“So have you, Tasha,” Clint signs. “I’m pretty sure I can handle him.”

“The only reason he chose to team up with you is because you’re the only one he hasn’t tried to kill in the last thirty years.”

“That makes a lot of sense. He tried to kill Stark?” Clint asks, eyebrows raising.

Natasha doesn’t answer. Instead she kisses Clint on the lips, and reiterates.

“Be careful with him.”

If Clint packed light, then Bucky hasn’t packed at all. He’s got a case that’s big enough for a disassembled rifle, a scope and little else. As they’re airdropped in, Clint can’t help thinking that this is exactly like the Hunger Games.

“So you know we’re supposed to take him alive, right?” Clint asks while Bucky starts walking. “The Avengers don’t kill.”

“Guess we won’t need the incendiary grenades then,” Bucky says, totally poe-faced, and keeps on walking. Clint chokes on his own spit.

“Little message from Smokey Bear, pal- Only you can prevent forest fires!”

“I was joking. I don’t want to hurt the trees,” Bucky says. “Though I have read Charles Madden Brown’s file, and it seems to me it would cause more harm to leave someone like that alive.”

“That makes two of us,” Clint admits. Bucky looks at him with a sidelong glance that’s somehow worse than being directly stared at.

“He was here, and recently,” he finally says. They’re at a crystal clear river with fish and many plants at the bank. “He’ll be back. He wants fish.”

He sits down. He doesn’t need to make camp to look completely at home there. Clint realizes that more than anything, Bucky is the person you want when you need to do a lot of sitting and waiting.

It is _boring_. Clint shoots a fish with an arrow and guts it. Bucky barely blinks.

“So,” Clint says, but Bucky raises a hand to quiet him, jerking his head to the river. From their concealed location, they can see Charles Madden Brown with a makeshift spear and wearing prison oranges. He’s bald, but the halo of hair on his arms and bare chest is green. Gamma radiation manifests in weird ways.

“Should I…” Clint whispers, but when he looks beside him, Bucky is already gone, jumped down to engage the metahuman serial killer who’s read _My Side of the Mountain_ one too many times. “I’ll cover you then.”

He pulls an arrow from his quiver and readies his bow. He looks down from his vantage point. Brown hasn’t noticed Bucky yet, and truth be told Clint can’t see the ex-assassin anywhere. And then he nearly drops his bow, because Bucky has launched into an attack and has Brown tackled to the ground before Clint can really process it.

“Surrender,” he growls, and punches Brown in the face with his metal hand. Blood gets _everywhere_. Clint sighs, and joins Bucky down on the ground.

“Barnes, please don’t go Winter Soldier on his ass,” he says.

“Don’t be such a bleeding heart. He’d be _dead_ if…”

An explosion knocks them down. Before he’s laid flat, Clint can see Bucky flung into the river and Brown running away. Warm blood gushes from Clint’s nose, and his ears are ringing. He pulls out a fried hearing aid and sighs.

Bucky gets out of the river, drenched and looking for all the world like a cat who’s been given a bath, and walks over to him with an almost imperceptible limp.

“Are you all right?” he says quite loudly. His hearing must be compromised as well. 

“Once I finish losing my lifeblood through my nostrils I’m sure I’ll be a-okay,” Clint says, casually hitting the ground with his fist. “What in fuck’s name was that?”

“It was a large explosion,” Bucky says.

“You are not wrong.”

“I think it might have originated from Brown,” Bucky continues with a frown. “Metahuman abilities. Killed all the fish.”

“Well okay Captain Planet. Let’s avenge the fucking fish. I should call for backup. Rogers and his shield would be really useful for this one. Exploding serial killers motherfuck…”

“Backup is not required,” Bucky says, and opens his case. “Let me see your nose.”

It’s a first aid kit. There’s not a single weapon in there. Clint reappraises his situation, and sighs. This is going to be a weird mission.


	2. Chapter 2

“You know they’ll call him The Exploding Man,” Clint says, “when we bring his exploding ass in.”

“Isn’t he already called the Catskill Skinner?” Bucky says, and stops. They’ve been stopping every few minutes because Bucky has water lodged in his ear and can’t get it out.

“Yeah, but he’s not skinning anyone. He’s exploding,” Clint points out. “Ugh, there’s some more stuff on that tree.”

Charles Madden Brown has some kind of skin condition now- fluorescent green blobs that are left behind on trees and plants and acidly scar the bark. Bucky walks up to it and takes a sample with a tiny jar, then puts it in his arm for analysis. Stark was thorough when he upgraded Barnes’ arm.

“Did the police officer who debriefed us this morning say how Brown came into contact with gamma radiation?” he says with a frown. “Because I don’t think they have problems with this at Sing Sing.”

“What are you saying?” Clint says.

“I’m saying there’s probably a reason Banner’s not with us.”

“Yeah. You didn’t let me call for backup. That is the sole reason,” Clint says, feeling a bit of an irritation headache come on. “I don’t think anyone ever made clear to me if you had meta capabilities or something, so maybe I’m not apprised of your whole skillset, but don’t you think we’re in a bit over our heads?”

“I have never been over my head in my life,” Bucky says. “And I believe you to be a competent operative.”

“That’s just about the nicest thing anyone’s said to me,” Clint says, and they stop again. “Look, I don’t think you have water in your ear. I think you might have lost some of your hearing. You were right beside the explosion after all.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Bucky says after a moment. “I’ll get it looked at when we get back to the Tower.”

Just then his arm starts bleating out a ringtone. He raises his hand to his ear, and makes the universal sign for telephoning.

“It’s Barnes,” he says. “Doctor Banner, we were just talking about you.”

He listens for a long time, stone face betraying nothing.

“Thanks for calling, Doctor,” he says, and hangs up, turns to Clint. “There are things we didn’t know.”

“Oh great,” Clint says. “So what’s the story?”

“The NYPD were unaware of a breakout involving Charles Madden Brown until Stark attempted to contact their offices regarding the case. It appears that Brown was taken from his cell some time ago by the military for testing of some kind. Banner says General Ross is involved.”

“That motherfucker,” Clint groans. “Well, that explains the gamma radiation.”

“If I were to give my best guess, it looks like this is an attempt to draw the good doctor out,” Bucky says.

“This changes the mission. Are we seriously retrieving Exploding Guy for the military before anyone knows they fucked up?”

“No,” Bucky says. “Brown is hurting the environment, and it won’t be long before he hurts people too. This changes nothing. We’ll contain the threat, and then wait until someone can pick him up.”

“Well I guess while we’re here,” Clint mumbles. “At least he’s easy to track. All this lime jello is just lighting us a path.”

They walk for a long while, following the green shit on the trees. The sun is starting to set, and the goo is lighting up in the darkness. Bucky shows no signs of slowing. They’re halfway up the mountain when he finally stops.

“He’s up there,” he says, pointing to a tree positively dripping in green fluorescence. “He’s covered in some kind of cocoon.”

“Should I shoot an arrow at him?” Clint asks.

“Do not shoot an arrow at him,” Bucky replies, biting his lip. He looks unsure about how to proceed. “Charles Madden Brown?”

There’s no response.

“Well, what the fuck are you going to do? Make a citizen’s arrest? Give him a bandaid?” Clint asks peeved. “I’ve got an arrow.”

“The reason I don’t want you to shoot it is because I’ve seen this before,” Bucky says. “Sac ruptures, shit gets everywhere. Especially…”

“Especially the trees. Okay. You know, I read the Lorax when I was a kid and to be quite honest? I was expecting someone shorter,” Clint says.

“Not just the trees,” Bucky says. “It was a Siberian plateau. After they ruptured the sac it became a Siberian crater. Also bird life would be affected.”

“Jesus George Christ,” Clint says. “So what was the context of the… Siberian crater?”

“Experiment of some kind,” Bucky frowns. “Honestly my recall is foggy most days.”

Clint can’t remember this level of frustration working with anyone. Ever.

“You know Barnes, I know that you’re trying to play it by the book,” he says. “But I’d say we’re caught between a rock and a hard place, wouldn’t you? I mean, we got to get Brown down from there somehow.”

“If you want to call someone in, then you can,” Bucky says. “I think that any more people on this mission would compromise it, however.”

“I’m going to shoot an arrow at it.”

But before they can debate the merits of shooting Brown with an arrow any longer, someone makes the call for them. There’s a spray of bullets, and Hawkeye is forced to the ground by Bucky’s metal arm.

 _What the hell is happening?_ Clint thinks, trying to pinpoint where the gunfire is coming from. He can taste blood, he’s bitten his tongue. Beside him Bucky is tense.

“You okay?” he says loudly.

“I’m fine,” Clint says, looks over. Bucky’s clenched his metal hand over a wound on his shoulder.

“You got shot.”

“Sure did,” Bucky says, and peers over the plateau of the trail. “We’re being fired on by military.”

“Ross?” Clint says, and hisses when Bucky shrugs. “Damn it.”

Clint’s taking an arrow out of his quiver when there’s the crackle of a loudspeaker.

“Hawkeye, Winter Soldier, stand down,” someone yells, and Bucky groans audibly.

“It’s _Talbot_ ,” he says.

“Fuck,” Clint says, lowering his bow just slightly. “Hulkbuster units?”

“Yeah. They were expecting Banner,” Bucky says. “Though the military doesn’t much care for me either.”

“Why not? You’re a war hero, aren’t you?” Clint jokes, and Bucky smiles. “Well, this has gone totally tits up, so I think we should just fuck the mission and see how many Hulkbusters we can take down.”

“I like the way you think,” Bucky says. “Drinks after this.”

 _Fucking insane_ , Clint thinks, but readies his arrow again. Bucky lets go of his shoulder, which is now covered with some kind of StarkTech compress, and there’s the unmistakable sound of the repulsor blast firing up in his hand.

And then the Charles Madden Brown cocoon is shot and promptly explodes, raining down gamma shit on both of them.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I really liked writing this, and I hope you all had fun reading! Come talk comics with me at bouzingo.tumblr.com!

Clint Barton read about the Howling Commandos when he was a kid. Someone at the circus gave him some of the comics, yellowed and foxed. And, he’d never admit it to the guy who’s just ripped off a Hulkbuster’s arm and is using it to destroy other Hulkbusters, but Bucky Barnes was his _favourite_.

Clint’s dripping in crap that might turn him into the Incredible Hulk, he can’t hear for shit, and he’s going to run out of arrows soon, but he’s having the time of his life. And Bucky Barnes is fighting by his side, lips pursed while he shoots the hotwired Hulkbuster arm.

“I tried calling for backup,” Bucky yells over the gunfire, “but it seems our signals are scrambled.”

“I don’t like to say I told you so!” Clint laughs.

“Okay Barton,” Bucky says, and pauses to stuff a handful of m+ms into his mouth. All the other gunfire stops too. The soldiers on the ground look horrified. Both Barton and Barnes turn around.

“Well fuck,” Clint says. Charles Madden Brown, irradiated, hulking, half-formed, is ambling towards them.

“Do you have any arrows for that?” Bucky signs, and then pops another candy into his mouth.

“Says the guy with the Hulkbuster gun,” Clint rolls his eyes. Of course Bucky knows ASL.

“Touché.”

Bucky fires up the arm again, crunches on the damn candy. Clint wishes he’d packed some snacks, because this is popcorn material right here.

“All right Charles Madden Brown,” Bucky calls. “I see a couple ways to do this, all right? I’ve taken out all the Hulkbuster units. It’s just me. I don’t want to shoot you but I will. Or you can stop. You can turn yourself in, and get help.”

“Are you seriously trying to talk him down?” Clint signs, training an arrow at Brown. Bucky gives him a look.

“Well Brown?” he shouts.

Exploding Guy gives it a thought, and then explodes. Bucky fires the Hulkbuster gun at the same time, and the result singes Clint’s eyebrows. When the smoke clears, Clint can see that very little remains of Charles Madden Brown.

“Winter Soldier, stand down!” Talbot says, still on loudspeaker. Bucky flips him the bird with his metal hand. Clint laughs.

“Stop scrambling our transmissions,” Bucky says. “We need a ride home. And do you know what bringing these machines into the Catskills does to the environment? You should be ashamed.”

They don’t let Bucky or Clint message the Tower. They do give them a ride home though, in a helicopter. By then the compress on Bucky’s shoulder is starting to leak.

“Left the first-aid kit in the mountains?” Clint signs, a little concerned.

“Think I did,” Bucky signs back with a self-deprecating grimace. “No matter. The bullet went right through.”

“Doesn’t it hurt?”

Bucky shrugs, and winces.

Captain America meets them at the Tower’s landing pad, salutes their escort and pins Bucky down with a glare.

“Your first outing as an Avenger, and you destroy seven Hulkbuster units while disobeying Colonel Talbot’s orders,” he says. “I’m not impressed.”

“And I’m not military,” Barnes says, metal hand clenching his wound. “Talbot isn’t either. He’s Ross’s merc.”

“They did fire on us first. Sir,” Clint says, and almost falls over when he’s given the full force of that ice blue stare.

“I don’t like your lip, son,” Captain America says, eyes narrowing. Bucky and Clint exchange a look, and start laughing.

“I _really_ need a doctor,” Bucky laughs. “Court-martial me later, Rogers.”

After a shower and a change of clothes, Clint finds himself back in the garden with an issue of _National Geographic_. Steve Rogers, not Captain America, is there as well, sketching. Clint sits down in a chair, enjoying the sensation of hearing aids that aren’t half-busted.

“Why did he choose you?” Steve asks, and Clint actually has to look behind to make sure that it is he who’s being addressed.

“Natasha thinks it’s because I’m the only one he hasn’t tried to kill,” Clint says, with a touch more diplomacy than he is known for. Steve looks surprised, smiles slowly.

“He likes you,” he says. Clint opens his mouth, and then shuts it.

“I don’t understand,” he says.

“You treat him differently,” Steve says.

“No differently than anyone else,” Clint says.

“Exactly,” Steve says, pulls out some coloured pencils. “You have no expectations for him beyond what you see. It must be refreshing.”

“He’s a good person,” Clint says. “You know I read the Howling Commandos comics when I was a kid at the circus. Knew they were just stories with facts tacked on but they helped me.”

“I’m pleased to hear it,” Steve says, genuinely surprised.

“Bucky Barnes was my friend then,” Clint says, “And so I treat him as a friend now. Even if he’s not all there, I know he’s a good person.”

“I wish everyone could be as sure as you,” Steve says. “I wish I could be sure.”

This is more than Clint expected out of a conversation with Captain America. He swallows, puts aside his magazine.

“Most people want to be good when others think they are good,” he says seriously. “Not all of us are you.”

“I guess not,” Steve says with a small smile. They stay for a while in the garden, Steve drawing and Clint half-reading his Nat Geo.

Two days later, Bucky’s out of surgery, and still high as a kite from the painkillers. He points to his new hearing aid in his left ear when he sees Clint.

“You were right!” he says, grinning wide. “One step closer to becoming the Bionic Man.”

“That’s the spirit,” Clint grins. “You headed up?”

“Yup. Bruce has been watching the garden. Apparently the pansies are coming in,” Bucky says. “No sign of the bees yet, though. I wonder if we’re too high up.”

“Damn stupid bees if so,” Clint shrugs. “I mean you even planted the flowers in their favourite colours.”

In the garden, Bucky turns to Clint suddenly.

“Thanks for talking to Steve,” he signs.

“He told you, huh?”

“We’re working things out,” Bucky signs. “What I mean to him. What he means to me. It’s you who got the ball rolling. So thank you. You’re a swell friend.”

The pansies are coming in. Bucky is delighted when he sees a single bumblebee flitting about among the morning glory. Clint is happy to be this guy’s friend.


End file.
